I asked for and received and pair of binoculars for Christmas in 2022. Then, while I was up visiting my in-laws in Pennsylvania by brother-in-law mentioned something called eBird. He said it was a place to find out where hard to find birds had been spotted, as well as a place to keep track of the birds you personally seen. Interested, I downloaded the app and on December 30, 2022 I made my first observation. I didn’t see anything particularly interesting, some Chickadees, a couple of Tufted Titmice, and a solitary Northern Cardinal. I submitted the observation without much thought and went about my day.
That evening however, I noticed an email notification that piqued my interest. The From line said “Dave Smith*, via eBird”, and the Subject Line read “Your Black-capped Chickadee observation in eBird”.